When the past catches up with you
by yohnagirl4eva
Summary: Rogue finally has control over her powers and things seem to be going well. But what happens when a letter reaches her? How has her past caught up with her? And how is she going to handle it? Please r
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own X-men.

Thanks for the great reviews on my other story. Promise they'll be an update for you all soon. Hope you like this one. It was kind of random, and inspired by several of the other stories on this website.

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Beep, Beep, Beep.

Groaning, Rogue rolled over and slammed her hand down on her alarm clock, effectively turning it off. Now, normally, Rogue hated mornings, especially when she was getting up earlier than she needed to, but since she had started going for an early morning run, she was getting used to them. Don't get me wrong she still hated them, but she was coming to tolerate them more.

This morning was no different, and Rogue pulled herself out of bed, glancing over at her room mate to make sure that she hadn't woken her up, and pulled on her running gear of sweats a tank top and sneakers. She clipped her ipod arm band in place, and slotted her ipod inside it and quietly made her way out of the room and down the hall, glad that she had control over her powers now so that she didn't need to touch Kitty every morning so that she could use her phasing power to sneak past Logan's room, knowing from past experience that the man hated to be woken up for no good reason, and apparently Rogue going running was not a good reason.

After a couple of minutes, Rogue managed to make it downstairs and out the front door of the Xavier mansion without waking anybody up, so breathed a small sigh of relief and headed out of the gates to go for her usual morning run, listening to the music pumping in her ears.

30 minutes later and Rogue returned to the mansion. She headed to the kitchen to get a drink and could hear the sounds of the others just beginning to stir, although no one had made it down to the kitchen yet, making it a quiet heaven for Rogue. She quickly grabbed a bottle of water and drained it, to make up for all the water her body had just lost, and then added her usual cup of coffee, before heading out to the back garden and into the thick forest of trees that bordered the Xavier institute. After a couple minutes of walking, ahe found her small clearing where she came most mornings after her run just to sit and meditate. The Professor had originally asigned her the task as a way of helping to control the psyches in her head, but it had helped with so much more that Rogue hadn't been able to give it up. Since she had started meditating, she found that it was much easier to control her temper as well as the psyches in her head. Not she needed to worry about them anymore.

All too soon, Rogue's watch began to beep telling her that she needed to head back inside to get ready for the danger room session with Logan and the other senier X-men. She gave a sigh as she headed back into the mansion and up to her room, where she found Kitty rushing around the room in her usual state of panic. "Er, Kit, are yah ok?" She asked cautiously, noticing that her room mate seemed a little more flustered than usual today.

"Rogue! Like, oh my God, I am so glad you're here." She exclaimed, abandoning the pile of clothes she was tossing everywhere to run over to the girl who was stood just inside the doorway.

"What's the matter?" She asked.

"I, like, totally can't find my uniform. Did you see what I did with it, like, after the last training session?" She asked her, a tone of desperatrion in her voice.

Rogue sighed. "Kit, yah gotta be more careful with yah stuff. Here. Yah flung it on mah side of the room yesterday so ah hung it up for yah." Rogue told her, pulling said uniform out of her wardrobe and handing it to Kitty.

Kitty breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh my gosh, like, thank you so much Rogue. Logan would like totally kill me if I was late or lost it." She told her.

Chuckling, Rogue pulled her own uniform out of the wardrobe and tossed it on the bed as she began pulling off her running gear. She couldn't help but be glad that she had outgrown her old uniform. 'Not that I didn't like it or anything, but the shoulder pads weren't really my thing. This one's much better.' She thought to herself, as she pulled on the new black spandex uniform, which had an emerald green 'X' accross the chest, she had a belt to match, and to Rogue, the best thing about the uniform was that the only yellow on it was the actual 'x' on the belt buckle, the belt itself being the same green as the 'x'. As she donned her black boots, fastening the green clips, she looked up at Kitty, only to see her checking her reflection in the mirror.

Rolling her eyes, but unable to keep from smirking slightly at the same time, Rogue walked over to her friend and grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the door. "Come on Kit, yah can check out yah reflection after the danger room session." She told her as she led the girl down the corridoor to the lift.

"Like, relax Rogue, we've got plenty of time." Kitty argued.

"Yah clock has stopped Kit. Or don't yah remember the little issue we had yesterday before school?" Rogue reminded her.

"Like, oh yeah." Kitty told her.

As the pair arrived in the danger room, they found that the others were already there, the only one missing being Kurt, and he was usually late, allowing himself to sleep in later than the others as he had the ability to just teleport in in a second. Sure enough, just as Logan was walking into the room, Kurt teleported in and came to stand by Rogue and Kitty. "Just in time elf." Logan warned him. "Next time you're late you'll be on blackbird duty for a month." He told him. Kurt gulped whilst the others all smirked at him, Tabby and Even snickering slightly. "Same goes for the rest of you. You're getting mighty cocky since Apocolypse. Lets see what you're really made of. We've got a new simulation today. Mission objective, defeat the enemy and keep everyone alive, and relatively uninjured. You get a red mark, you're out of the game." He told them, before turning and walking out of the room so that he could watch them.

The slight smirk on his face told Rogue that this wasn't going to be as easy as he made it sound. "Hm, that sounds simple enough. We should be done and out of here in a few minutes." Scott speculated.

"Ah wouldn't be too sure about that." Rogue told them.

They all turned to look at her. "What do you mean Rogue?" Jean asked her. Since Rogue had gotten control over her powers, she found that she didn't really dislike Jean as much as she thought she had. I mean, ok, they were far from the best of friends or anything, but they were, in a wierd sort of way, friends now.

"Well, from what heh just said ah get the impression that hh wants to take us down a peg or two. So mah guess is that the enemy, or enemies, are going to be pretty hard to beat. Especially as heh's not sure we'll all make it through alive." She explained.

Their faces turned from confident to a little unsure, and Rogue knew that that wasn't going to help them during this simulation. "Look, ah'm sure we'll be fine. We just need to stay on our guard and expect the unexpected. Standard procedure when Logan's concerned." She reassured them. Their faces looking slightly more optimistic.

"Rogue's right. We can do this. I mean, we won against apocolypse. We can win against the danger room." Scott announced to them all.

"All right you lot, enough gossiping, and get ready." Logan told them over the speaker. As soon as Scott gave him the nod, Logan started the simulation, and straight away they could see that this wasn't going to be simple.

It took them nearly 2 hours to complete the simulation, and they were all relieved that school was starting an hour later today sue to some repairs that had to be finished off before health and safety would allow the students back into the school. So, whilst they had all expected to be able to take their time getting ready that morning, they all ended up in the same rush as every other week day. People shouting and banging on doors, hurrying each other so that they could each get their turn in the bathroom.

Rogue let Kitty use the bathroom first, glad that the pair had their own so that they didn't have to queue up anymore. Whilst the girl did take a long time in the bathroom in the mornings getting ready, Rogue knew that she took even longer getting dressed and gathering all her books together, and as Kitty wouldn't let Rogue leave without her, Rogue knew that it was in both their interests to let Kitty go first. That way they at least had a chance of catching a ride to school with Scott before he drove off without them.

As soon as Kitty came out, Rogue rushed in before Kitty could decide that she had forgotten to do something and had a shower and rinsed her hair. She quickly dried it, but as she looked at the clock she knew that she wouldn't have time to straighen it. Glaring at the curls in her hair, she walked out of the bathroom in her underwear and went over to her wardrobe, pulling out a pair of dark blue jeans and a black tank top, pulling on a dark purple shirt over the top. She slipped her feet into her purple pumps and walked over to her desk, putting her various books and papers into her backpack ready for the day ahead.

"Rogue, I, like, never knew you had curly hair." Kitty told her best friend.

Rogue looked up from her backpack to where Kitty was stood in front of her mirror, applying her makeup. "Huh? Oh yeah, Ah always straighten it. Ah don't like them much." She told her. She then grabbed her brush and a hair tie and walked over to the mirror, scraping back her hair into a ponytail, the white bangs hanging down and framing her face, not quite long enough to tie back yet.

"Why are you tying it up? It looks, like totally great on you." Kitty told her, turning back to her makeup.

"Because they're too girly." Rogue explained, although this just got an eye roll out of Kittty. Rogue finished tying up her hair and gave herself the once over in the mirror, making sure that she looked ok, and was pleased with what she saw. Since she had gained control over her powers, she didn't feel the need to put on such a strong front anymore, so she had toned down her makeup somewhat, although the only time you could see her without any on was when she went running, as she didn't like sweating that much with makeup on as clogged up all your pores and Rogue hated getting zits.

Satisfied with how she looked she grabbed her bag and turned to face Kitty waiting to see if the Valley girl was ready yet. "You know I, like, don't think curls are girly Rogue, they're pretty, especially yours, and they're natural too. You should, like, wear your hair like that more often." She announced, before putting the lipgloss in her bag and walking towards Rogue, who was waiting by the door.

"Thanks for yah advice Kit, but ah think ah'll stick to straight for mow." She told her as the pair walked down to the car, pleased to see that it was still there. They soon found out why though.

"Come on Jean, where are you? We're going to be late." Scott grumbled as he paced back and forth outside the car, Kurt and Evan watching with a mixture of amusment and annoyance.

"Hey Kurt, Even, what's going on?" Rogue asked as they approached the pair, all of them watching Scott pace.

"Oh, morining Kitty, morning Schwester. Scott is annoyed because Jean is taking zo long getting ready, but he refuses to leave wizout her." Kurt explained to them as they continued to watch him.

Suddenly the door to the garage opened and Miss Perfect herself came running through. "Oh my gosh, you guys. I am so sorry I'm late. I was a little slow in getting to the bathroom." She apologised, climbing into the car, where Scott was ushering them all so that they could get going.

Rogue looked at the girl curiously, as did Kitty, both of them knowing that the Professor had fitted Jeans room with a private bathroom like theirs, so that she didn't have to queue in the mornings anymore. So, technically, there shouldn't have been anything preventing her from getting into the bathroom. But they also noticed the girls slight awkwardness and couldn't help but wonder at it. However, they knew better than to ask any questions in front of the guys, all of whom were completely oblivious to all of this.

As soon as they arrived at school, they all went straight to their second class, which for Rogue and Kitty, happened to be Math. They seemed to spend the majority of the class passing notes, Rogue starting as usual, after all, she hated math (A/N: me too. I'm pretty rubbish at it, but hey, isn't that what calculaters were invented for?), so she usually tried to find a way to ignore the droning voice of the teacher for the hour slot that she had to spend sitting behind her desk and pretending to pay attention. THe usual relief swept accross Rogue as she heard the bell ring for the end of the lesson, and she and Kitty quickly gathered thei things and rushed off to their next class, agreeing to meet up at lunch.

French, on the other hand, was one of Rogue's favourite classes in school, right alongside art and drama, and suprisingly, history. She didn't really understand hat bit either. Anyway, this was the one lesson that Rogue was actually on her own for, with none of the other X-men in this class, and none of the brotherhood either. She didn't really mind though, she was too interested in learning the language to bother about something like that.

Now, I should probably take this opportunity to explain that whilst the other x-men also studied French, they weren't in the same set as Rogue, as she knew more than them. In other words, she was studying French at a higher level. Hence, why the others are not with her, and why the class is a little smaller than average.

As soon as the teacher walked in the door, all conversation ceased and everyone paid attention, just waiting to find out what they would be doing for the lesson. "Bonjour class." The teacher greeted.

"Bonjour Madame." They all replied. Rogue thought that this might be the one place in school, heck, maybe even in all of Bayville, where it didn't seem to matter that she was a mutant, because they were all too busy learning and having fun, to bother about it. 'Maybe that's why it's one of my favourite lessons, because it gives me hope that one day the Prof's dream really will become a reality.' She thought to herself, however, she quickly shook it away so that she could pay attention to what the teacher was saying.

A rather uneventful lunchtime, during which Kurt, Evan and Bobby messed around, earning them stern looks from Scott, whilst the others just laughed at them, Rogue endured a painfully boring biology lesson followed by her art class, which she enjoyed. She completed her sketch of the arrangement of glued sweets the teacher had handed to her at the beginning of class, and turned it in, along with the rest of the class, although she had scalded several of the boys who had tried to eat some of their sweets, only to find that they were glued down, something which had amused Rogue greatly.

Before she knew it, it was the end of the day, and as soon as art class was over, Rogue rushed back to her locker to grab her books and homewrok assignments before making her way out of school and over to Scotts car where the others were all gathered. For once, Scott hadn't driven off without her, and she was pleased, although she thought that Kitty and Kurt might have had something to do with that.

30 minutes later and Rogue was safely back and the mansion and relaxing in her room. Sat on her bed, reading her latest vampire novel, her earphone stuck in her ears, letting the book suck her into a world of mystery and intrigue, an odd sort of romance set in the south, reminding her of a place she once called home.

"Rogue?" Came a voice at the door. When no one answered the door opened a little, to see Rogue sat on her bed, her foot tapping slightly to the beat of her music, which could just be made out due to the volume of the music. "Rogue?!" The person called, a little louder this time.

Rogue looked up, seeing Storm stood by the door. She pulled out her earphones and gave the woman a small smile. "Hey Storm. Is everything alright?" She asked the weather witch.

"Yes thank you Rogue. I just came to tell you that dinner is ready." She told her.

"Ok, thanks." She told her, dog-earring the place in her book and switching her ipod off as she went to wash up ready for dinner. She already knew that it would be takeout, after all, it was Logan's turn to cook, and he wasn't very big on the concept, so he usually ordered in, or went to some restaurant in town and got them to pack it all into containers. The Professor didn't really approve of this, but as Logan frequently used his favourite restaurant he let him off and didn't comment. It wasn't like it would make much of a differenct anyway. Logan was Logan and nothing was going to change that about him.

After dinner Rogue went to the library to tackle some of the homework she has been given by her teachers, although she left her math books up in her room, knowing that she wasn't even going to attempt to look at the problems until at least next Wednesday. After all, it was Thursday, which meant that after tomorrow she had two whole days of no school, plus an extra seven seeing as how it was end of term.

At 9pm Rogue was interupted by Jamie, the young boy having become quite attatched to Rogue during his time at the institute, and suprisingly, Rogue had developed a soft spot for the boy. "Rogue?" Came the voice that she had come to recognise very well over the past couple of years. When Jamie had first arrived at the insitute, he had a black eye, was rather skinny and had several scrapes and bruises on his body. Rogue had instantly recognised them, remembering a time when she had sported similar injuries, she had felt oddly protective of him, knowing what it was like and not wanting anyone to go through what she had gone through. The boy had opened up to her, and she was always his first port of call if he ever needed anything.

Rogue looked over at the young boy and smiled at him. "Hey Jamie, how are yah sugah?" She asked him.

Jamie came futher into the room towards Rogue. "I'm good. Mr Logan says I have to go to bed though. Would you read me a story?" He asked. "Yours are better than Storms and Hanks." He added.

Rogue just chuckled at him. "Of course ah will. Lets go. Don't want yah getting into trouble with Logan now do we?" She told him, as she led him out of the library and up to his bedroom. Sending the boy off to change into his pajamas and brush his teeth, Rogue turned down the sheets so that he could climb into bed, and then tucked him in once he was comfy. She then perched herself on the edge of the bed and began to tell him a tale of vampire knights fighting dragons and greedy monarchs so that they could get the powerful stone of thunder, so that they could free the vampires as the monarchs had stolen in order to control all the vampires in the land. By the end of the story Jamie was sleepy, she could see his eyes drooping, but he wasn't quite asleep so she sang softly to him, stroking his hair a little until he was fast asleep.

As soon as his breath became slow and even, Rogue smiled and left the room, going to gather her things from the library before going to bed herself, finding her room mate already fast asleep, chuckling a little at the beauty mask that Kitty was donning, ready for her special date with Lance tomorrow night. Turning off her light and climbing into bed, it didn't take long before Rogue fell asleep, wondering what tomorrow was going to bring. As her own breathing became slow and even, nobody noticed the pair of red eyes watching her, leaving when they were assured that the girl was asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to everyone who reviewed my first chapter. Here's the next installment. Hope you like it.

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The next morning found Rogue up and running again, although this time she didn't feel much like meditating so decided just to go back inside and grab some breakfast and he cup of coffee before she had to go and get ready for the danger room session.

Today's lesson was hand to hand combat, and as usual Rogue was partnered with Kitty, and, as usual, Kitty found herslef spending the majority of the session on the floor, where Rogue would either push or toss her during combat. "You know Rogue, I lile, don't think this is much of a danger room session." She told the girl, getting fed up of sitting on the floor.

"What yah mean Kit?" Rogue asked, helping her friend up from the floor.

"Well, I'm not realyl learning anything, and, like, all I ever seem to do in these sessions is fall down. I like, don't see the point in getting back up." She told her, frowning.

Rogue just chuckled. "Ah suppose yah do have a point Kit, but Yah supposed to be learning to duck when ah punch and kick." She told her. "Think of it more as dodgeball and mah hands and feet are the balls." She tod her, hoping she would understand.

"Like, fine, ok. I still don't think it's going to work though." She added.

It was a whole 10 minutes before Kitty ended up back on the ground this time, and Kitty smiled at her. "See Kit, yah can do it when yah put yah mind to it. Now, come on, ah think we have time for one more before Logan chucks us all out." Rogue told her, pulling the Valley girl to her feet.

Whilst the day seemed just like any other, there was in fact a slight difference in it, as not only had Rogue caused a bit of a stir during drama class when she had sung (it was part of her character in the play thing they were doing), but when she returned to the mansion she found that she a letter had arrived for her in the post. As soon as she walked through the front door she was approached by Storm and Logan. "Hey Stripes. Letter came for ya today." He told her gruffly as Storm handed her the letter.

"Oh, thanks Logan. THanks Storm." She told them pair, who turned to walk away, having been on their way to meet wit hthe Professor about something. Rogue looked down at the letter in her hands, wondering who would be writing to her. She turned it over and looked at the handwriting there, frowning when she recognised it but was unable to remember where from. For some reason though she felt like that wasn't a goot thing.

As if in a sort of trance, Rogue walked up to the room she and Kitty shared, knowing that the valley girl wouldn't be back for at least another hour yet as she and Jean had gone shopping to find something for her to wear on her date with Lance tonight. Rogue dropped her bag on the floor just inside her bedroom and walked over to her bed, still starnig at the letter in her hands. Sighing, as she knew it wasn't going to open itself, she turned it over and ripped it open, pulling out the piece of paper inside.

'Anna Marie, or should I call you Rogue now?

It's been a while since you heard from me huh? Bet you thought you were long shot of me, and well, for a while you thought right; after all who would want a filthy mutie like you for a daughter? But you see the thing is, I'm in a bit of a jam, and could use a hand. I can already see your reaction, 'well why should I?' Well, I'll tell you why, because freak, I have a great big file in front of me listing everything about you and where you live, so unless you want this to end up in the hands of say, oh, I don't know, Boliver Trask, who has just been released from jail, then I suggest yu get yourself back to Lagoon Bay pronto.

See you in a week.'

Rogue sat there in a stunned silence for a long time, horrified at the letter, not just that it was from her father, but that he was blackmailing her into helping him. 'Actually that bit shouldn't suprise me, he was always one to think I needed motivation to do something. But I can't believe he would stoop so low as to actually find out all about where I live and the people I care about.' She told herself, raging on the inside. 'I can't believe they let that madman out of prison either.' She thought to herself. She stayed staring at the letter for antoehr few minutes before she heard Logan shouting her for the danger room session. Pushing thoughts of the letter to the bakc of her mind she shoved it back in its envelope and hid it under her pillow, knowing that she would need to talk to the Professor about this, but unsure of how much to tell him. After all, if he had found out where she was living when he hadn't told her, then and had as much info on them all as she suspected he might, then she didn't want to risk anything by telling the professor the truth, although she hated having to lie to him.

All through dinner that evening, Rogue had been distracted, too busy thinking about what to do about the letter to concentrate on what people were saying to her. "Rogue!"

"Huh?" She snapped out of her trance hearing someone shouting her name. She looked up to see Kitty and Kurt looking at her, their concerned faces making Rogue feel guilty about her inattention. She knew that by acting so out of it, it would only alert the pair that something was wrong. She forced herself to push the letter from her mind, and smile apologetically at the pair. "Oh, sorry guys, ah was a little out of it there. What were yah sayin'?" She asked them.

"Well, I was, like, soing to ask if you wanted to come out with us tonight?" Kitty asked her. "Kurt, Amanda and the brotherhood are all, like, coming out to that new club in town. We were, like, wondering if you wanted to come with?" She added.

"Oh, thanks for the offer, but ah don't really feel like goin' out tonight." Rogue told them. The pair cast her curious looks but didn't say any more, instead continuing to plan their evening, leaving Rogue to pick at her dinner, until it was time to clean away. Knowing that most of the mansion was going out that night, she offered to clean the kitchen so that Kitty could go and get ready.

"Really? Oh, Rogue, you are, like, the best friend ever." She told her, giving her friend a quick hug before running out of the kitchen to go and get ready.

Rogue didn't care about the mess the newbies had made with their food fight. The more mess and plates to clean up the longer she could distract herself from the letter and what she knew she would have to do. Rogue turned back to the kitchen, sighing slightly. 'Well, guess ah'd better get started.' She thought to herself, beginning to collect the plates and stack them by the sink. She placed her ipod in the docking station that had been set up in the kitchen, and set it to her play her favourite playlist. As the first track came on she ran the water in the sink and began to scrub the plates clean.

She was halfway through the stack when her music suddenly stopped. Whirling round to see who had shut it off, ready to give them what for, she stopped, slightly suprised to find Logan stood there. "What are you doing Stripes?" He asked her gruffly.

Smirking, Rogue turned back to the dishes. "Ah'm washing dishes, what does it look like?" She retorted.

"Stripes." He stated, his tone making it clear that he wasn't in the mood to mess around.

Rogue sighed, pausing in her task. "Look, Kitty needs the extra time to get ready, so ah offered to do the dishes for her, okay? Ah'm not going out tonight." She added.

"And why's that?" He asked, knowing that she usually went out somewhere on a Friday night.

"Because ah don't feel like it." She told him, getting a little annoyed with the questioning.

"Got anything to do with that letter came for you earlier?" He asked her, not realising that he had touched a sore subject.

Rogue tensed in front of the sink, wondering if he knew more than he was letting on. It's not like he hadn't done it before. "Ah don't know what yah're talking about." She told him, forcing herself to relax and continue washing the dishes.

"Try again Stripes." He told her. "I can tell you're lying." He added.

Sighing again, Rogue turned to face Logan. "Look, what do yah want to know? Ah'm not going out because ah don't want to. The letter has nothing to do with it. In fact ah haven't even opened it yet. It's still in mah bedroom, where ah left it." She told him, hoping that he wouldn't see through that lie as well. "Ah know how long it takes Kit to get ready so ah figured ah'd do the gal a favour by cleaning up the kitchen for her." She ecplained. "Now, was there something yah wanted?" She asked him, glaring slightly.

Logan narrowed his eyes at her slightly. "Look Stripes, I know there's something you're not saying, but I'll let it go for now. Any more daydreaming and I'll lock you in the danger room until you tell me what's going on." He threatened.

"Ah can't see the Professor agreeing to that." She commented.

"Who says he'll know." He retorted, smirking at her.

Rogue just raised an eyebrow at him before turning to finish the dishes, ignoring Logan, until she heard the sound of her music start up again and the door swing shut. She breathed out a sigh of relief, glad that he hadn't pushed it, but knowing that she needed to come up with an iron clad story if she was going to pull this off flawlessly.

As soon as she finished sweeping the kitcxhen and wiping down the surfaces, she unplugged her ipod and walked up to her room, where she found Kitty just putting the finishing touches to her makeup and hair. She turned round when Rogue walked in. "Rogue, like, thank you so much for doing that. I'd, like, never be ready on time if I had to do that. You're a total lifesaver Rogue." She told her, standing up and looking at her reflection. "What do you think?" She asked, giving Rogue a twirl.

Rogue gave her a soft smile. "Yah look great Kit. Ah bet Lance's jaw'll hit the floor when he sees yah." She joked, making the valley girl blush.

"Like, thanks. I totally think you're exaggerating though." SHe told her, still blushing as she tried to busy herself so that it was less noticable.

Chuckling, Rogue just walked round her bed, picking up her pajamas and walked into the bathroom to change. "So, have yah worked out a schedule for the evening then?" She shouted from the bathroom.

"Well, I totally wanted to just meet the guys and then go straight to the club, but, like, Kurt wants to go to this bar first. Looks like I'm going to be outvoted. I already know, like, Lance will want to go there. He goes every week." She told her.

The bathroom door opened and Rogue stepped out in her black silk shorts and vest top, both with an emerald coloured rose embroidered on them in a fine thread. She walked over to her bed and settled herself on it comfortably, planning on a relaxing evening reading her book, whilst she tried to figure out what to do about her fathers letter. "Come on Kit, yah know yah'll enjoy it if yah with Lance." She teased the girl, illiciting another blush from her.

"Yeah, well, as ah also know how much Lance is looking forward to seeing yah, then yah should get going." She told her, shooing her out of the room and downstairs. A small sigh of relief escaped her when the excitable valley girl was gone, and Rogue let herself slump onto her bed, pulling out the letter from under her pillow and trying to come up with a plan to get down south without raising too many suspicions, and most importantly, without the Professor demanding that she take someone with her. 'Maybe ah should just say that ah need a bit of a break and ah want to go and visit Irene.' She thought to herself, wondering if the plan would work.

It didn't take long before her thoughts turned to what exactly her father needed her help with. After all, he's hated her when she was a child, and that was before he found out she was a mutant.

Seeing that this wasn't going to get her anywhere, Rogue spent the next few hours planning how she was going to get down south within her time limit and without raising too much suspician about why she was wanting to go.

By 10pm she had the plan sorted and she tucked the letter back under her pillow before climbing under the sheets, quickly falling asleep due to the exhaustion she felt from the stress and worry she was feeling about what she was about to do and the consequences that she knew would be sure to follow. As usual though, past memories became nightmares for her, the only difference being that this time, they were her own memories. "Mama, please . . . . . Mama" She muttered as she began to toss and turn in her sleep. "Just go . . . .No, daddy, stop . . . . please daddy . . . . " She muttered, becoming more distressed as the memoriy progressed.

Across the room from Rogue, Kitty stirred in her sleep. Hearing someone muttering, she forced herself to open her eyes, wondering if there was some sort of secret mission coming through, or Lance had come to pay her a late night visit. As she pulled herself upright though, she quickly became aware that the voice she could hear belonged to her room mate. Said room mate tossing violently in her bed. "Please daddy . . . . stop it. . . " She could hear her friends vice on the other side of the room, and hurried out of bed to her side, only to find tears streaming down her cheeks as she turned, her face scrunched up in fear and pain.

"Rogue. Rogue wake up." She called, hating to see her friend in so much pain.

"Mama. . . . no, daddy stop it! Stop it!" She muttered, her cries becoming louder than before.

"Rogue! Wake up!" Kitty shouted at her, still not getting a response. She grabbed Rogue's shoulders, shaking them gently.

"Daddy stop! No. . . . No! . . . MAMA!!!" She screamed. Suddenly Rogue's eyes burst open as she screamed, springing up in bed, startling Kitty, to a point where she stumbled backwards a few steps. Rogue was panting, her eyes wildly darting around the room, as if searching for something, the fear still prominent on her face.

Just as Kitty was about to ask her what had happened, there came a loud banging on the door. "Stripes! Half-pint! What's going on?!" Logan shouted through the door.

Kitty hurried to open the door, knowing that she needed Storm to help calm Rogue down, who had yet to show any signs of calming down, unlike other times when she had nightmares, her room normall being enough to calm her straight away. Pulling open the door, Kitty found all the teachers and the other senior members of the X-men stood there, some of the younger members coming to stand in doorways to see what was going on. "Kitty, what is it? What's happened?" Scott asked, standing there with a hand to the side of his glasses and pale blue pajamas with white fluffy clouds printed all over them. In any normal situation, Kitty would have laughed upon seeing them, but she was far too worried about Rogue to even notice what Scott was wearing, never mind laugh about it.

"I, like, don't know. I woke up and Rogue was muttering in her sleep. But she wouldn't wake up when I tried to make her, and then she, like, totally screamed liek that as sprang up in bed." She told them. "Storm, I can't calm her down." She told them woman, quickly grabbing her arm and pulling her into the room and towards Rogue's bed, where the occupant was now sat huddled against the head of the bed, still panting slightly, with tears streaming down her face.

The others all followed Kitty into the room, coming to a stop when they saw the state Rogue was in, none of them ever having seen her in such a mess before, even when she had had the dream about Kurt after she had absorbed Mystique. Scott and Jean quickly got to work on ushering the younger students back to bed, although Jamie was unwilling to go without some sort of reassurance that Rogue was going to be ok.

"Rogue, child. What happened?" Storm asked her calmly, perching herself on the edge of the bed, Kitty doing the same on the other side, reaching to take ahold of Rogue's hand, although Rogue just cowered away from it, a little like she did before she had control over her powers, only this time, it seemed as though she were afraid that she would get hurt, and not the other way around.

"Ah. . . ah had a nightmare that's all." She managed to tell them, forcing herself to calm down, knowing that this wasn't going to help her with her plan.. "Ah'm fine now." She told them, calming slightly, and letting Kitty take hold of her hand.

"What happened Stripes? Another memory?" Logan asked gruffly, hoping that it wasn't his that had done this to her.

Rogue didn't move for a moment, but then she nodded slightly. Seeing them exchange glances, she could hear the silentquestion running through their minds. "Don't worry, it didn't belong to any of yah." She told them as she kept her gaze fixed firmly on her hand, which was holding onto Kitty's, trying not to squeeze too tightly so that she would betray how shaken up she still felt on the inside.

"Are you sure Rogue? That seems like a rather bad memory. Would you like me to try and remove it from your mind?" The professor asked her as he wheeled closer to her.

Rogue instantly felt her mind blocks double, knowing that this was one memory she couldn't let the Professor see. "No thank yah Professor. Ah'll be fine. It was just a bit of a shock is all. Ah'll be fine." She assured them, trying to believe the words she was telling them herself.

The looks on everyones face said that they didn't believe her, but they all knew her well enough to know that if Rogue didn't want to tell you something, then she wouldn't. "Alright then Stripes. But you know where we are if you need anything." Logan told her, giving her a look. Rogue just nodded, not moving her gaze from her hand, clasped firmly in Kitty's. "And half-pint? Back to bed." He told her, an unspoken message seeming to pass between the two that Rogue was too out of it to pick up on. The others did though and all gave Kitty a nod as they left the room, closing the door behind them.

"Rogue?" Kitty asked gently, hoping that her friend would tell her the truth. "Whose memory was it?" She asked her.

"Ah can't tell yah Kit. Ah wish ah could, but ah can't." She told her, tears springing to her eys again as parts of the meory came back to her, the emotions that went with them assulting her over and over again.

"You mean you don't know?" Kitty asked cautiously, never having been in a situation where Rogue was unable to tell whose memories were giving her nightmares.

It wasn't the truth exactly, but it was a lifeline and Rogue took it. "Yeah, Ah don't know. Ah've not absorbed anyone new recently, and ah don't recognise any of the people in it." She told her friend, hating that she was having to lie so blatently to Kitty.

Kitty looked at her a little confused and worried, but Rogue knew that she needed to get Kitty back to bed so that she could be alone with her thoughts for a little while. "Rogue are you sure you don't want me to get the Professor? He might be able to help you work out whose memory it is, that way you can asign it to the box thing and not have to think about it anymore." Kitty asked her.

Rogue gave her a weak smile, aware that there were still a few tears running fown her cheeks. "Nah, ah'm ok Kit. Yah should get back to bed though, we have danger room in the morning." She told her friend.

Kitty rolled her eyes. "I, like, know. I totally can't believe that Logan is making us run simulations on a Saturday morning. I mean, weren't there, like, rules against that somehwere?" She asked Rogue, illiciting a small chuckle from her.

"Probably Kit, but knowing Logan, he probably destroyed every copy of it." She told her, earning her another eye roll from Kitty.

"Ugh, I, like, could totally believe it." She told her, squeezing Rogue's hand as she stood up. She knew that if Rogue was chuckling and smiling a little, then the girl was feeling better and would be fine in another couple of minutes, but as she knew she liked to spend those minutes alone with her thoughts Kitty made her way back over to her bed and climbed in, pulling the sheets around her as she called out 'goodnight' to her room mate.

As soon as she heard the even rise and fall of Kitty's breathing, letting her know that she was fast asleep. Rogue quietly pulled herself out of bed and walked outside onto the balcony, pulling the french door to behing her, so that she could cry. She knew that she and Kitty were the only ones on this side of the mansion who ever left their french doors open at night, so the only person who could possibly end up hearing her was Kitty, so she pulled the doors to to muffle the sound of her crying.

Seating herself on the balcony railing, Rogue pulling her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around her knees as she cried into them, the pain and fear she had felt during that part of her life still raw as she had never had the chance to properly deal with it, just pushing it further and further into her mind so that she didn't have to think about it and it would be hidden from the Professor and Jean, not wanting anyone at the mansion to know about that part of her life. It was one of the reasons she had changed her name and claimed she didn't know what her real name was. There was far too much emotion attatched to that name.

Rogue wasn't sure how long she had been out there crying when she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Not having heard anyone approach, Rogue jumped slightly, almost losing her balance and falling off the balcony. A pair of strong arms pulled her close to them, steadying her and comforting her at the same time. Chancing a glance upwards, Rogue came face to face with a pair of glowing red and black eyes. "Remy?" She whispered, wondering what he was doing there.

The cajun in question just smirked a little at her, well aware that those were fresh tears on her cheeks and hating the pain and fear he could feel from her, but also knowing that neither of these emotions were becuase of him. "Bonjour chere." He told her.

"What are yah doing here?" She asked him, making no attempt to free herself from his comforting hold around her.

"Jus' want'd ta make sure dat ya were doin' ok chere. Glad I decided ta come now." He told her. Using the first person so that she knew he was sincere.

Rogue knew he was being sincere, even without him using the first person. "Oh?" She asked. "And why's that?" She questioned.

Remy pulled one of his arms from around her waist and reached up a bare hand to wipe away the tears on her face. "So dat I could hold ya Chere." He told her sadly, wishing he knew what had caused her pain. "So dat I could find a way to take all dat pain and fear ya feelin' and replace it wit' happiness. Dat's the only emotion I ever want ta feel comin from ya cherie." He told her.

Turning her gaze to the floor, Rogue couldn't bring herself to look into his beautiful eyes as she replied. "But we both know that's unrealistic." She told him. "That it'll never happen. They'll always be some other emotion getting in the way, fear, sadness, anger, desire. A person can't feel just one emotion all of the time." She told him

"I know Chere, doesn' make me wan' it any less though." He told her. She looked up at him and gave him a small, sad smile. Rather weak compared to some of the amazingly beautiful smiles he had seen come from her in the past couple of weeks. "So, whose memory was that Chere?" He asked, knowing full well that she had been lying when she had denied any knowledge of who it belonged to.

"Ah don't know Cajun. Or didn't yah hear meh say that bit." She retorted, knowing that he must have been watching her.

"Why don' ya try dat again Chere, an' dis time it might 'elp if ya told me da truth." He told her, smirking slightly at her.

Sighing, Rogue looked down, pulling herself out of his arms slightly, knowing that Remy was the one person in the world she would never be able ot lie to; and, she found, that she didn't really want to lie to. He understood her better than anyone else ever had, or ever would. There were things about her he understood which even Kitty, Kurt and Logan didn't understand. "Ah'll never be able to lie to yah will ah?" She realised.

"Now we gettin' somewhere Chere. But enough of the subject change." He told her, letting her perch on the side on balcony railings as her held on to her so that she didn't fall, although, mostly, he just wanted to hold her in his arms.

"It was mah memory." She whispered.

"Quoi?" He asked, startled. Of all the answers he had expected, that wasn't one of them. "Yours?" He asked, confused.

Rogue nodded her head. "Yeah. From when ah was little. Before ah was found and adopted by Mystique. Before ah became the Rogue." She told him.

"What 'appened Cherie?" He asked her gently.

"Ah'd rather not talk about it on mansion grounds." She told him, standing up, and pulling herself out of his hold. "But, ah usually go for a run at 5am." She told him, letting him know that if he really wanted to know, then he would meet her then.

Remy understood what she was saying and smirked at her, before bowing to her, and raising her hand to his lips, finding it hard to restrain himself to keep from kissing her all the way up the arm and to her lips. Telling himself that he couldn't kiss the tears off her cheeks as he had no right. He wasn't her boyfriend, and she might not want him to do it. After all, he had realised that Rogue was more special to him than any other girl he had ever met and he didn't want to ruin that just because he couldn't control himself. "Until we meet again den Cherie." He told her, grinning up at her slightly.

He was just turning to jump off the balcony, when Rogue stopped him, turning him to face her and placing a gentle kiss on his cheek, before she blushed and walked back into her room, pulling the curtains shut behind her, leaving a shocked Remy stood, frozen in place on the balcony.

After that, Rogue soon fell asleep, dreaming of red-eyed cajuns for the rest of the night, instead of the usual nonsense scenes of memories which managed to escape her barriers, occasionally giving her glimpses into the true happiness or horror in a persons life.


	3. Chapter 3

Ok, this may be a bit boring, but it's necessary. It's a background chapter, so we get to find out about Rogue's past.

Sorry I was a little late getting this up, my computer crashed and I started freaking out thinking I'd lost not only my stories but my coursework. There are times when I really hate computers! Anyway, on with the story. Let me know what you think.

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The next morning and Rogue was wide awake and ready for her run, well aware of what awaited her at some point along the point of her route, and yet strangely, she didn't feel any sense of dread, or fear, like she had when she had thought, just for a moment, that she would have to tell the Professor everything in order to get him to let her go down to Mississippi on her own, but then she had realised that if she told the Professor, or anyone at the institute about her past, then they would all insist on at least one person coming with her, and chances are that Logan would be the one chosen. A mess she could really do without right now.

Knowing what lay ahead of her, Rogue decided to leave her ipod at home, after all, it's not like she needed it to talk to Remy or anything. Quickly pulling on a pair of sweat, a clean tank top and her running shoes, she walked out onto her balcony and used Jean's telekinesis to levitate herself off the balcony and over the mansion wall, so that she could get going without have to phase through everything on order to keep from waking Logan up.

As she landed back on the ground she took off and began running, pushing herself a little harder today, knowing that she wasn't going to get the full 30 minutes that she usually got in the mornings, slightly suprised at how fast she was able to go, never having actually pushed herself like this before. Sure enough, she was just circling round, about to return to the mansion when a figure dropped down from the tree in front of her, landing directly in her path. Luckily Rogue managed to dodge slightly as she slowed to a stop, otherwise she would have run straight into Remy, sending them both hurtling to the ground. "Swamp rat, can't yah do anything like a normal person?" She asked him, sighing.

Remy just grinned at her. "Remy don' know wha' ya mean Chere." He told her.

Rolling her eyes, Rogue just grabbed his hand and led him a little ways into the forest where she knew of a clearing, overlooking a lake, which no one else seemed to know about. When they reached the clearing, Rogue took a careful look around, doing a quick scan with her mind, but only detecting the presense of herself and Remy, so she let go of him and sat down by the lake, hugging her knees to her chest.

Slightly sliwer, Remy came over and took a seat next to her, his shoulder brushing against hers a little. "So Chere. Ya wanna tel me 'bout dat memory o' yers?" He asked her, making it sound more of a statement that suggestion, as though there was no option but to tell him.

Rogue shrugged slightly and kept her gaze fixed on the lake in front of her, knowing that it would be easier to tell if she wasn't looking at him, seeing the reaction on his face when he found out. "Well, for starters, no one knows what ah'm about to tell yah. Not Mystique, not the Professor, not Magneto, no one." She told him. Remy just nodded to let her know that he understood. Rogue then sighed again. "Before Mystique found meh, ah lived in a little town, not too far from Caldecutt, called Lagoon bay. Ah'm not really sure why it's called that, there wasn't any kind of oasis or whatever around there, just a bunch of dug out quarry's" She told him. "Back then, mah name was Anna Marie. Ah lived in a little house with mah mama and daddy, like most average kids. But there was a big difference between us." She began.

Remy listened, forcing himsefl not to comment of anything until the end so that she could just tell him, his empathy telling him how hard this was for her to say. 'Still, ma chere has a tres belle name.' He thought to hiimself.

"Mah daddy was the biggest gah in the whole village. Ah used to be proud of that, but then he lost his job. Ah guess that was when our happy little family began to change." She mused. " Ah think ah was about 2 at the time daddy lost his job. Ah don't really remember much, just what mah mama told meh later on. Daddy spent the next two years applying for job after job, going on so many interviews, and each time he ended up coming away empty handed. After so long of searching and coming up empty handed, he began to lose hope, he turned to alcohol to drown his sorrows. It wasn't too bad at first, but there was a lot more shouting. Ah remember that. The shouting. It wasn't til ah was 4 1/2 that ah found there was more to it. Ah'd woken up in the middle of the night, like all kids, ah had ightmares sometimes and ah wanted mah mama to comfort meh. Ah could hear voices downstairs, ah started to get out of bed, but then ah heard a smash and a thud. Ah didn't know what was going on, and not knowing any better, ah went to find out. We had a pretty open plan downstairs area, but there was this one spot on the staircase where yah could sit and not be spotted by those downstairs. Ah made mah way there, and found mah mama on the ground, clutching the side of her face. Her favourite vase, the crystal one that her parents had given her for as a wedding present before they died, was in tiny pieces all around her. Daddy was standing over her. Ah'd never seen his face so red before, he seemed so angry, ah was almost scared, but at the time ah didn't believe that it was mah daddy that had thrown the vase at mama. Ah thought it must have been an accident or something." She told him, her voice cracking slightly as the lump in her throat began to overwhelm her.

Feeling the spike in her emotions, Remy wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders, letting her rest her head against his chest so that she would know that he was there for her, should she need him, not knowing what else he could do. He already had good idea of where this story was going, and he didn't like it one bit, but knew that his emotions could take a backseat for now.

"As the days went on, ah realised that the injuries appearing on mah mama weren't accidents. They were there on purpose. Mah daddy was doing that to her. The day ah realised that, a part of meh was destroyed. Ah had always thought that mah daddy would keep us safe, protect us from anything that came our way. He was the biggest guy in the village and everyone was afraid of him when he was angry. No one dared pick on meh in school. But when mama started appearing with all these strange injuries on her, people began to put 2 and 2 together, realising what was going on. Instead of helping us, they shunned us, steering clear of us at all costs, all of them too scared of what mah daddy would do to them if they tried to help. Ah remember the looks other parents would give us in the school yard when mama would come and collect meh. Each time she turned up, there seemed to be a new injury on her pretty face. She was so beautiful. Ah remember once that she showed meh some of the stuff from her highschool memory box. She was so pretty and popular. Had so many friends, and in each picture ah saw she was smiling, surrounded by a crowd of people. It was hard to see. One day, after mah report card came home, we went to the little shop that we had to walk past to get home. It had a pick 'n' mix in it, and whilst ah had mah sweets, mama got a scratchcard, saying that it was our lucky day. It was. We won $80,000, but mama saved the card and drove 20 miles to go and fetch it from in the city so that word wouldn't get back to the village that she had won it. When she got back we waited until daddy went out to the bar, where he would go for 8 hours every day, and we spent the time making little hidey holes for all the money in mah room. It was the one place in the house that daddy never came." She told him, tears streaming down her face as she forced herself to remember everything.

Forcing his anger down inside him lest she pick up on it, Remy just gave her a little comforting squeeze to let her know that he was there for her.

"Ah kept begging mama, everyday when she picked me up from school, to just grab the money and run away together, someplace where we could start a new life, where she would be safe. Even though ah had seen mah daddy hit mah mama, he never raised his hand to meh, and it never occured to meh that he might. Each day mama would tell meh the same thing. That once we had the extra couple hundred that we needed for the plane tickets we would leave for Canada, a place where she believed we would actually be safe. Ah knew that when the time came to do that, it would hurt, mama had spent her whole life in the south, and ah knew she didn't want to leave it, but she would if it meant safety. In all this time, mah daddy had never, knowingly, hit mah mama in front of meh. But then parents evening came. Mama had booked all mah appointments straight after school, and we had both reminded daddy a hundred times about it. We knew he wouldn't turn up, but as we would be a little late home, we didn't want him to get angry, claiming that we hadn't told him. Just to make sure though, we left a note on the refrigerator and on the coffee table, sure that he would see at least on of them. But something went wrong with that plan. Ah don't know what, ah never found out, but ah remember walking through the door that evening, practically beaming at how proud mah mama was with my skill in school. Ah may not have liked it, but ah knew that if ah learnt enough, became smart enough, ah could help mama get us away from daddy. But when we walked through the door, daddy was waiting for us. He didn't seem to notice meh at first, just backhanded mama across the face, sending her crashing into the wall. Ah screamed, scared at what was going to happen. Daddy just shouted at meh to shut up. To be quiet and to never repeat a word of what occured in the house to anyone. Ah just nodded.

Ah was too scared to move, to run to mah room like mah mama kept telling meh to. Ah just stood, frozed to the spot as mah daddy hit her, and beat her, until he got bored and left. Ah ran to her side as soon as the door was gone and helped her bandage up her injuries. Ah seemed to do this a lot over the next few moths. Now that ah already knew what he was doing, daddy didn't seem to care whether or not ah was in the room when he hit mama after that. So ah found mahself helping her more and more. Things began to get worse until one day, a school inspector was visiting from out of town. He didn't know who mah daddy was, or anything that happened in our village, but ah got on well with him, and as soon as ah walked outside with him, he took one look at mah mama and knew what mah daddy was doing. He offered to help us, to get us out of there and away from mah daddy, but somehow mah daddy had found out, and that night, as mama and ah finished making dinner, daddy walked in and dragged us mama away from the surface to the living space. Ah was holding tight to mama's hand so ah got dragged with her. He stood there screaming at her, hitting her, hrowing things at her and kicking her. When ah saw blood and ran over to him, begging him to stop, to leave her alone. He just pushed me aside and continued to hit her. He picked her up and physically threw her across the room. Mama was struggling to get back up, so ah tried again. Ah somehow managed to grab his fist, tears falling down mah face as a begged him to stop, to leave mama alone. He just tossed me aside again with a few shouted curses, but ah was quicker this time and grabbed hold of his legs so that he couldn't move. He was so mad at meh that he grabbed mah hair and pulled meh away from him, throwing meh across the room where ah crashed into a wall. Ah was a little dazed, but when mah vision straightened out, ah saw that mama wasn't moving. Daddy seemed to have noticed this to as he just took another look at her, before storming towards the door, where ah was. Ah was so scared ah couldn't move, but he just shoved meh out of the way and walked out, slamming the door behind him. As soon as the door was shut, ah ran over to mama, turning her over. Ah don't think ah've ever seen so much blood as ah did then. She was surrounded by it, and she was covered in bruises, some old, some new. Her bones were broken and she wasn't moving. Ah'd learnt a little first aid at school so ah moved her into the recovery position, whilst shouting for her to wake up.

Still she didn't move. Just lay there, finally looking somwhat peaceful. Ah screamed and screamed her name, until eventually one of the neighbours decided to risk it and come and see what had happened. As soon as he saw mah mama, the colour just drained straight out of his face. He ran towards meh, wrapping his arms around meh, as though to shield meh from the sight of mah mama laying there on the floor. He checked her pulse but didn't find one. He carefully lifted mah mama into his arms and carried her out of the house, telling meh to follow him. Ah did. Ah didn't know what else to do. He cleaned meh up and explained to meh that mama had died. That she had gone to live with the angels in a safe place. Ah told him that ah wanted to go with her. That ah wanted to live with the angels to. He seemed really upset when ah told him this, but if he'd been in mah shoes, he might have understood a little more. Ah was scared of what daddy would do now that he has killed mama. He gave me a cellphone and told meh that if ah ever needed any help then ah was to call speed dial 1 and he would come help meh. Ah told him ah would, but ah knew ah wouldn't. Ah felt like it was mah fault that mama had died. That ah hadn't done enough to stop him. To help her. Ah could have run to one of the neighbours for help. Ah could have clung on, redirected daddy's rage onto meh a little, but ah didn't, and ended up dead." She was crying freely now, unable to keep the emotions within her.

Remy felt his jaw set, hating her father for what he had put her through, for what he had done to her mother, not to mention her; and the fact that she had, in some way, blamed herself for her mothers death, only made it all the more harder to keep silent, but he knew that in order for Rogue to finish and tell him everything, then he would have to, because once she stopped, she wouldn't be able to start again.

"To this day, as far as ah know, that cell phone is still hidden somewhere in mah old bedroom. After that, ah pretty much had to look after mahself. Daddy spent even more time drinking, and was even angrier when he came home, but he just shouted at meh, he didn't hit meh. For a while at least. . . When mama died ah was just a few months off turning 7. Daddy didn't hit meh till afte ah turned 7. The day ah came home from school with a report card. We all had to have our parents sign it for us then return it to school. The teacher had given meh a worried look when she handed meh mine, ah don't blame her, ah was worried too. Mama had always done all the paperwork for school and stuff, paid all the bills. Ah wondered how long it would be before ah was forced to work, to leave school, before we ended up on the streets. When ah got home, daddy seemed calm, a little too calm, it only unnerved meh more, but ah knew ah had to ask so ah did. Ah showed him mah report card and asked him to sign it. He just grinned at meh and told meh to persuade him to. Ah told him that ah would forget that he had killed mama if he signed it. He was mad instantly, picked meh up and hauled meh across the room, where ah landed in the television set. It smashed and some of the bits got embedded in mah skin. He shouted at meh, kicked meh a couple of times, but then on his way out of the room he signed the report card. Luckily, through watching mama stitch herself back up again so many times, ah was able to do it mahself so ah didn't get any infections or anything. But the next day at school when ah handed mah report card back in, the teacher looked at meh as though her worst fears, her expectations had been confirmed. Probably had something to do with the large bruise on mah face, or the way it hurt to move. The parents in the playground gave meh that same look whenever ah walked past them. It was several months later, just after mah 8th birthday that ah decided to do something about it.

Ah'd come home from school like usual, and not hearing anything when ah walked in, went straight to mah room, still thinking of it as the one place where mah daddy had never stepped foot. Ah pushed open mah bedroom door to find mah daddy and a local hooker. She was sprawled on mah bed. Bruises rapidly forming onf the tops of her arms and her cheek. Ah knew what daddy was doing, what he had done ot her, and this woman, who ah had seen shout, bite, and cuss like a sailer, looked terrified, she was crying. She reminded meh of meh, when ah had stood watching mama, get beaten. Which, ironically, was what she ended up having to watch. Daddy climbed off her, but didn't bother to pull up his pants. He just walked over to me, slapped meh round the face a couple of times and then threw meh down the stairs. Ah couldn't help but scream as ah fell. When ah woke up the house was quiet, and ah knew that it was now or never. Ah ran to mah room, determined never to sleep in that bed again. Ah pulled out a backpack, filled it with a few necessities like mama had taught meh, pulling out the money and hiding it inside. Then ah ran, ah didn't know where ah was going, and ah didn't really care as long as it was away from him. Ah never wanted to see or hear from him again. It was when ah ran that Irene had her vision, which is what made Mystique come find meh. Ah claimed ah couldn't remember mah real name, thinking that if ah told them, they'd send meh back to mah daddy, but they didn't look for anyone, they just took meh in." She told him, finishing her story.

Unable to take it any more, Remy pulled her onto his lap, hugging her tightly, tears pouring down his own face at all that she had been put through, realising that not once had she ever had the chance at a normal childhood. A time when she could just be herself and not worry about anyon hurting her, or her hurting someone else, of not being shunned or told what to do, or persecuted for something she couldn't help. As Remy held her to him, not knowing anything to say, so just holding her ,rocking her slightly in his arms, he marvelled at how the girl in his arms had managed to stay so strong through everything life had thrown at her. He couldn't deny the feeling of wanting to protect her, to make sure that never again would anyone hurt her the way that her father had. The way that Mystique had. He wanted to run away with her, keep her all to himself so he could watch over her 24/7.

After several minutes of him just holding her whilst she cried, Rogue managed to calm down enough to finish, to add the proverbial cherry on the cake. "And the worst part of it all, is that ah have to return to Lagoon bay to see him. He's the one who sent meh that letter. Ah don't know how he found out where ah was living, or who ah am now, but he has, and he says that unless ah want a latge file containing a lot of information about meh, and in effect the other X-men, to fall into the hands of trask, who would no doubt see meh as a means of destroying al mutants, then ah have to do as he says and be back there within a week." She told him, tears falling down her face again. "But the worst thing is, if he has got someone following meh, there's a chance that, just by telling you all of this, ah've put you in danger as well." She told him, whispering through her tears, as for the first time, she let her true emotions show to Remy, letting him know just how scared she was right now, not of him, but for him, and for the X-men, that were like a family to her. Scared that she would be used to hurt those she loved. But not once did her detect the fear for her own life, something which unnerved Remy greatly.

"Chere, I love ya. I always 'ave, an' dere's no way 'm gonna let ya go anywhere near dat man wit'out me." He told her, looking her straight in the eyes.

Rogue looked up at his eyes as she tried t slow the tears falling down her face. "Ah love yah too Rems. But ah don't want yah to get hurt." She told him. "It's too dangerous for anyone to come with meh." She told him, placing a hand on his cheek, glad that she was able to touch him now.

Remy brought his own hand up to cover hers. "Chere, I love ya. If anythin' were ta happen ta ya, I'd never forgive m'self, 'm not lettin' ya do dis on ya own. Either I come wit' ya, or ya don' go." He told her firmly, a stern expression on his face as he held her slightly away from him so that she could see how serious he was.

She didn't need to look at his face to know that he wasn't messign around, that he really meant what he was saying to her. Rogue just sighed. "Fine, yah can come. But ah don't want yah to meet him. It's too dangerous, and if something goes wrong, ah'll need yah to get in touch with the Professor so that he can send Logan to come help meh." She told him.

"We can talk 'bout da details later Rogue, for now, ya need to relax a little. I won't let anyt'in 'appen to ya, so ya don' need ta be scared ok? We'll make it t'rough dis together Chere." He told her, pulling her close to him again.

The pair sat there for a while until Rogue glanced at her watch and saw that she needed to get back to the mansion for the danger room session. She wrapped her arms around his waist, not wanting to let him go, knowing that he could be in danger if someone really was watching them, as she knew someone will have had to have been in order for her daddy to get so much information on her to even know where to send the letter, never mind what her new name was. "Remy?" She asked him softly.

He looked down at her, not loosening his hold on her, still sensing that she was worried, although a little less so to know that he would be with her, although he was still smiling with the fact that she had admitted she loved him. "Oui chere?" He asked her.

"When we make it through all this, do yah fancy goin' dancing or something?" She asked him, blushing slightly.

Remy grinnned at her, amazed at how beautiful she looked, even when she was blushing and had tear tracks down her cheeks, making her eyes all red and puffy. "Love ta Chere. Just name de day, an' I'll be dere." He told her.

Rogue smiled at him, a happy, genuine smile, for what felt like the first time. "Good." She nodded, before she stood up, sighing. "Ah'd better get back to the mansion, they'll all notice if ah'm late for the danger room session." She told him.

"Don't worry none chere. Remy's 'ere fer ya, yer safe." He told her. He pulled her into a quick hug and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. It was the first time he had kissed hr and he was amazed at how soft her lips were, although he was pleased when he felt her kissing him back. They soon had to part though, their seperate duties meaning that they needed to get going. Remy flashed her another grin before taking her hand and walking her back to the mansion, Rogue telling him how she had planned to leave, and she and Remy had arranged to meet up at 6pm that evening around the corner from the mansion. They also exchanged numbers so that they could get in touch with each other if something went wrong and they needed to change some of the arrangements.

Arriving outside of the mansion, Remy gave Rogue another kiss on the lips, followed by a grin and a wink before he left, disappearing into the trees, where he flipped up onto one of the branches so that he could watch her go in, making sure that she was safe. He also found himself looking around him, almost as if checking to see that no one was following him. After all, whilst he didn't resent Rogue for telling him anything, and was glad she had, it didn't change the fact that she was right about him being in danger if someone really was following her.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey everyone, sorry for the wait in uploading. I had a severe case of writers block and then University deadlines came along lol. Hope you all like the new chapter.

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Back at the mansion, the others were just dragging themselves down the stairs to the danger room ready for Logan's weekend session, which always seemed to be worse than the ones he ran during the week.

As Rogue made her way to her room, she past several of the others in the hallways, all of them giving her a suprised look, after all, by the time they normally got that far, she was back, changed and already waiting for them down in the danger room session. Rogue just ignored the looks though and continued on her way back to her room where she found Kitty just pulling on her own uniform. The girl looed up when Rogue walked in. "Rogue? Like, what are you doing? You're, like, way later than usual." SHe asked her, her confusion evident on her face.

"Yeah, ah lost track of time. Just started a new route." She told her, by way of explanation, which she supposed, in a way was true, after all, she had taken a new route into the forest, and she hadn't done that before. She began pulling off her running clothes and pulled her clean uniform out of her wardrobe, glad that they all had more than one of these things.

"Well you'd, like, better hurry. Kurt says Logan's in, like, a really foul mood this morning." Kitty told her, as she hurried to put on her own uniform, quickly tying back her hair so that it wouldn't get in the way.

Rogue just nodded as she pulled her suit on, before giving her face a quick wash and spraying a little body spray over herself, hopin that it would cover enough of Remy's scent that Logan wouldn't pick up on it. "Ok. Anyone know why?" She asked her friend as she came out of the bathroom, and the pair began walking down to the lower levels where the danger room was.

Kitty just shrugged. "I, like, have no idea. He's not even shouted at anyone, and like, Bobby hasn't pulled a single prank all week. It's a total mystery." She told her.

The pair walked the rest of the way in silence, reaching the danger room a couple of minutes before Logan himself walked in. He took a sniff of the air, then looked around the room, his eyes landing on Rogue. "Anyone here seen Gumbo?" He asked gruffly, his eyes not leaving Rogue.

"Ah ran into him this morning." She announced, knowing that there was no way any of the others could have run into him, what with them only just having woken up and all.

"He hurt you, Stripes?" Logan asked, his claws popping out, as though he were just rooting to gut something.

Rogue shook her head. "No. He seemed a little out of it himself, just bowed, apologised and ran off." She told him, suddenly realising what would have Logan so on edge.

Logan grumbled a little, but retracted his claws, and turned to face the others. "Alright, the aim of todays session is to rescue Storm and avoid anyone getting caught." He told them before walking out and heading up to the control room. As soon as he left Scott took up his post as leader.

"Ok, Jean and Evan, you're with me. Rogue, you, Kitty and Kurt will be team 2. We'll take care of taking out the obstacles whilst you al focus on getting Storm out. When you've done that, Kurt can teleport you to the blackbird, and then let us know so we can get back as well." He told them. They all nodded and the sim started.

They were all relatively suprised at how quickly they managed to get through it. Although they thought it might have something to do with the fact that Rogue just shove anyone in their path out of their way when they were rescuing Storm. It only took them 20 minutes to find her, and then they all teleported back to the blackbird, Rogue using the comm link to tell Scott that they had Storm and were black at the blackbird. She then sent Kurt to go and fetch them. In al, the sim only took them 50 minutes, almost half of what it usually took them, and none of them had been captured or seriously injured. There were a few cuts and scrapes, but nothing more serious than that.

They were just congratulating themselves when Logan walked into the room to debrief them. "Well, not bad. You still need to work on a few of your moves, but overall, goot session. Cyke, nice plan, splitting the team up, but don't just put the more defensive members of the team on rescuing duty, you could have made good use of both elf and Half-Pint in your team. But Stripes, Elf and Half-pint, you worked well together, so I'll let it go." He told them before walking out, leaving them all stood there, a little stunned.

"Man, what is with him?" Evan asked them, wondering what had gotten Logan in such a strange mood.

"Trask's been set free." Rogue announced blankly, staring at the door that Logan had just walked through.

"What? How do you know?" Scott asked her.

"Someone told me." She replied, before walking out of the room, not wanting to answer any other questions.

They all exchanged a few glances, all of them knowing that Rogue had been given a rough time of it when she had been captured. Kitty hurried out of the room, running to catch up with the goth girl. "Rogue, like, wait up!" She shouted, Rogue pausing in front of the elevator so that the valley girl could catch up. "How do you, like, know Trask is free?" She asked her as the pair entered the lift, allowing it to take them to the upper floors so they could go change.

"Like ah said. Someone told meh." She told her.

"But who?" Kitty asked a little cautiously.

Rouge didn't say anything for a minute. "Ah'm not sure ah should tell yah." Rogue told her, before she stepped out of the lift and walked down to her room, entering before Kitty and heading straight into the bathroom.

When she walked out several minutes later, having had a shower and washed her hair, she found Kitty sat waiting for her on the bed. "Rogue, I, like know there's something you're not telling me." She announced. "And I want to know what it is." She added, knowing Rogue would probably find a way around telling her if she didn't.

Sighing Rogue walked over to her dresser, pulling on a set of underwear, before standing by her wardbrobe. She pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans and a red t-shirt, which she layered a black vest top over .She slipped on a pair of black and red flip flops before sitting on her bed, knowing that Kitty could keep a secret. "Kitty, yah know when ah told yah yesterday that it was just a nightmare, and ah didn't know whose memory it was?" She began, wondering if this was such a good idea.

Kitty just nodded. "Yeah, have you, like, figured it out?" She asked.

Rogue just shook her head. "Ah didn't need to. Ah already know whose memory it is." Seeing the question on the girls lips she carried on. "It's mahne. "She told her. "That letter ah received brought back a few bad memories about mah past, and ah need to go and sort something out. Ah'm going back south for a few days, but ah need yah to do something for meh Kit." She told the girl, looking her straight in the eyes so that she would know just how serious this was.

"Of course, Rogue, just tell me what it is." She told her, understanding that what Rogue was about to say was impotant.

"If ah'm not back by Wednesday, and ah haven't called, yah need to tell the Professor ah need help. That ah need him to find meh. Ah'll be in Misissippi." She added.

Kitty looked at her friend, worried about what she was hearing. "Rogue, if what you have to do is dangerous, then maybe one of us should come with you? It doesn't sound too safe for you to be going alone." She told her.

Rogue gave the girl a small smile. "Ah won't be alone. Ah promise. They'll be two of us, but he might need a little help as well, so yah need to promise meh, that if yah wake up on Wednesday morning and ah'm not here or called to say ah'm on mah way back, you'll tell the professor straight away that ah'm in trouble and need help straight away." She told the girl.

Nodding, Kitty got an uneasy feeling inside her, not even registering that Rogue had said 'he', which meant she was going with a guy. "Ok, I promise Rogue." She told her.

Nodding, Rogue lost her serious face and smiled at the girl, almost as though the past couple of minutes had nevr happened. "Now, you should get ready, else they'll be no food left for yah when yah got down to breakfast." She joked, standing and walking out of the room, chuckling at Kitty's face .

When she reached the kitchen she quickly grabbed a couple of plates, pulling a chocoloate coissent onto her own plate, and grabbing a strawberry danish for kitty. She took a seat at the table, guarding Kitty's plate as she waited for the girl to come down. She had just finished her own breakfast, and drained the last dregs of her coffee as the girl walked in. Rogue gave her a nod and handed her the plate she had saved for her, causing a huge grin to spread over her face, knowing that Rogue had saved her the last strawberry danish. "Like, thank you Rogue." She gushed as she took a seat at the table opposite Kurt, who was eyeing Kitty's breakfast like a vulture, waiting to swoop in for the kill. Rogue just rolled her eyes and walked out, heading towards the Professors office, knowing that he would be there, seeing as he wasn't at the table.

'come in Rogue.' Came the Professor's voice in her head.

Rogue opened the door and walked in, glad to see that there was no one else there. The Professor smiled at her, as she closed the door behind her, motioning for her to take a seat. "Now, what can I do for you Rogue?" He asked her, hiding his suprise to see her in his office.

"Well, Professor, something's happened. Something that requires meh to go back south for a couple of days. Ah'll be back in a few days, but ah need to do this." She told him.

"I see, and what is it, exaactly that's happened?" He asked.

Glad that she knew the Professor well enough to know that he would ask this, Rogue reeled off the answer she had prepared. "It's Irene. She's not very well, and she wants to see meh. She's done a lot for meh, even though she does work for Mystique. Ah can't say no." She told him.

The Professor folded his hands together, contemplating what she had told him. "And I suppose that asking you to take Logan or anyone else with you won't work will it?" He asked her, an eyebrow raised.

Rogeu gave him a small smile at that. "No Professor, it won't. Ah need to do this mahself. An old friend is down there already, he's going to meet meh at the airport." She told him, feeling a little bad for lying like this, but knowing that it was necessary.

After contemplating her for a moment, the Professor sighed. "Very well Rogue. You may go, but if you do need anything ,you know we're here for you." He told her. "When do you need to leave?" He asked.

"Ah've found a ticket on a 8:20pm flight, so ah'll leave here at 6." She told him.

THe professor nodded. "Very well, do you need a ride?" He asked her.

"No thank yah Professor. Ah should be ok." She told him. She stod up, knowing that now that he had given her permission, she shouldn't hang about too long.

"Very well then Rogue, I hope all goes well." He told her, smiling gently.

Rogue returned the mans smile. "Thank yah Professor, ah hope so too." She told him, before leaving the office, walking straight back to her room to pack what she needed, not allowing herself to relax any until it was done. She was just wondering how she could claim she was getting the airport, when Kitty walked in the room. Amazingly the girl had managed to pass her test, and, whilst everyone at the mansion was still a bit wary of her driving, usually tryin to avoid it if they could, she knew that it was the one person who she could ask, which no one would want to verify by coming with them. "Kitty?" Rogue asked, as the girl sat down in front of her mirror.

Kitty looked up at Rogue, her mind still thinking over what Rogue had told her that morning. "Yeah Rogue"? She asked.

"Can ah ask yah to do something else for meh?" SHe asked her.

"Sure, like, what is it?" SHe asked her. Knowing that she owed Rogue after the number the times Rogue had covered for the girl when she had snuck out to see Lance at night, back when they were still together. She had broken up with him a few days back, and now had her sights set on a large russian, who was quiet and artistic. Not that anyone except Rogue knew about that.

"Well, remember meh telling yah that ah was going with someone?" She began. Kitty nodded. "Well, ah'm supposed to meet him at 6 tonight so that we could go, but ah can't tell the Professor who he is, so ah need to tell the Professor that someone's taking meh. Could yah give us a lift to the airport?" She asked her, looking a little embarrassed at having to ask her friend so much.

Kitty smiled. "Of course. On one condition." She added, grinning evilly. Rogue looked up at her, her expression telling her to name her terms. "You tell me who you're going with." She told her.

Rogue smirked. "Ok, but yah can't say anything to anyone. They'll kill meh if they found out. Or him." She added, shivering slightly. Kitty nodded, bouncing slightly in her seat. "It's Remy." She muttered.

There was a pause, and when no squelling folowed, Rogue looked up, only to find Kitty looking puzzled. "Remy? Whose Remy?" SHe asked, still trying to figure it out.

Rolling her eyes, Rogue chuckled at the girl. "It's Gambit. Yah know, friend of Piotr? AKA Colossus?" She expanded, knowing that Kitty had figured it out when she heard the gasp, and saw the large grin on her face.

"The cajun guy? Oh my God Rogue that's great! I, like, totally knew he had a thing for you. Especially after all that stuff in New Orleans." She told her. "So, do you love him?" SHe asked, grinning mischievously.

Blushing Rogue just nodded, but she couldn't help the goofy grin that split over her face. "Yeah, ah do. More than anything." She admitted.

More squelling followed this admission, and Kitty jumped up and came to hug her friend, pleased that she had finally found the person for her. 'Lord knows, she deserves it.' Kitty thought to herself. "Of course I'll, like, drive you. I'd love to. You're the only person here, who doesn't, like, go out of their way to avoid riding with me." She told her.

Rogue just smiled. "That's just because they remember what you were like when you were learning. That was the one time when everyone hated your powers. Instead of trying to avoid obstacles, you'd just phase straight through them, but somehow stop phasing halfway through , so you ended up with bits stuck in the car." She explained to the girl.

Kitty just rolled her eyes and smiling at her friend, went back to sit on the bed. "So what time do you need a lift?" She asked.

"6om, is that ok?" She asked, a little nervous about all this.

"Of course, let me just go claim a car." She told her, smirking a little. As she left the room, there was one thought clear in Rogue' mind 'that girl has been spending far too much time with meh.'


	5. Chapter 5

Before she knew it 6pm had rolled around and the entire mansion seemed to have assembled in the foyer to say goodbye. Rogue worked her way around, until she only had Logan and Jamie left. She stepped back from her hug with Kurt and turned to Jamie, who looked as though he was trying hard not to cry. Rogue gave him a smile. "Hey Jamie, don't worry, ah'll be back before yah know it." SHe told him. She held out her arms and Jamie ran forward, wrapping his arms around her waist and clinging to her, a couple of tears falling down his face. Feeling the tears, Rogue pulled back slightly, before she crouched down so that she eye to eye with him. "Hey, don't cry sugah, ah'll soon be back." She told him, hoping it would stop the tears that she hated to see on his face.

"But whose going to read me stories? Help me with my homework and hang out with me?" He asked her.

Rogue looked like she was trying to find an answer, and glanced at a couple of people, who nodded at her. "Well, ah think mah brother can manage a few stories, as long as yah don't overload him." She smirked at her words. "Kitty's one of the smartest people ah know. If she can't help yah with yah homework, then ah don't know who can." She addded, before adding the final piece of the puzzle. "And as for hanging out. . . well, ah know yah've been wanting meh to teach yah about bikes and stuff. . . how about yah learn from mah teacher?" SHe asked him.

He looked up. "Who was that?" He asked, curiously.

"Mr Logan." She whispered to him.

Jamie's eyes widened and he turned to look at said teacher. "You really taught Rogue all she knows about bikes?" He asked, seemingly a bit skeptic.

Logan just smirked. "I don't know about all, but I guess you'll just have to hang out with me to know for sure won't ya kid?" Logan told him, giving a slight nod to Rogue, who smiled at him in thanks.

Jamie turned back to Rogue. "Well, alright I guess. Seeing as you have to go and all. But I'll miss you." He told her, giving her another hug. "Come back soon." He told her.

Rogue smiled softly at the boys words, before giving him a little squeeze and standing striaght again. "Don't yah worry Jamie, ah'll be back before yah know it." She told him. She turned to Logan. "See yah in a few days?" She questioned, knowing that the man really wasnn't one for goodbyes.

Logan just reached out and pulled her into a hug, suprising almost everyone there, none of them having ever seen such a display of affection from the man, however the older sutdents and the teachers all knew that the canadian had a soft spot for Rogue, the girl they all knew he looked upon as a daughter. Rogue smiled over his shoulder, standing on tip toes so that she could place her head there. "You just get whatever it is you have to do done, so that ya can get back here. The place ain't the same without you Stripes." He told her, before giving her a nod.

Rogue grinned. "Ok then." She told him, before turning back to everyone. "Right, well, unless ah want to miss mah flight ah'd better get going." She announced. She followed Kitty out ot the car she had comandeered, which just happened to be Kurts jeep, not so unlike the one that Lance owned, only it was blue rather than a dark green-y black colour. She climbed into the passenger seat, Kitty taking her place behind the wheel and she waved to everyone out the window. "Ok, ah'll see yah''ll in a few days." She told them before Kitty but the car in gear and sped off down the driveway, and through the gates.

Just as they drove around the corner, Kitty pulled to a stop, knowing that this was where Rogue had arranged to meet Remy, but was suprised to see Piotr there as well, causing the girl to blush a little, remembering some of the dreams she'd had about him. Rogue noticed the blush and smirked a little, before climbing out of the car to see what was going on, a little worried that he was about to tell her that he couldn't come. "Hey Remy, is everything ok?" She asked him, trying to keep her voice calm and indifferent.

Remy smiled a little, knowing that she was a little worried. "O' course chere. Remy wasn't sure 'ow ya wanted ta get ta de airport, so he drafted 'is ami 'ere inta driving 'im." He explained, indicating the motorbike next to the pair.

"That's not yah bike." She stated, turning to Piotr. "Yah ride as well?" She asked him, a little suprised, she had thought him more of a jeep type of guy.

Piotr blushed a liitle, but nodded. "Yes. I find it is more relaxing when no one is travelling with you." He explained.

Rogue suddenly remembered Pyro and his obsession with fire and nodded in understanding. Kitty climbed out of the car and came to stand by Rogue. "So, er, what's the plan. You two need to be getting to the airport don't you?" SHe asked them, being careful to avoid Piotrs eye.

"Oh yeah, we do. Er, so how do you want to work this?" She asked them.

"Well, we could load th bike onto the back of the jeep and then all ride in the car?" Kitty suggested.

They all nodded, when Rogue got a sudden thought, knowing how much Kiity like Piotr. "Or," she started, drawing all the attention to herself. "Piotr, do yah trust Remy to drive yah bike?" SHe asked him.

"Er, well, yes, of course." He told her.

Rogue grinned. "Great, then Remy and ah can travel on yah bike, whilst yah ride with Kit in the jeep. We can put our stuff on the back seat, so we don't have to carry it on the bike." She explained, already chucking her bag in the back.

Remy eyes her carefully, whilst Kitty just blushed at the suggestion. Seeing the looke on Rogue's face, Remy just shrugged, knowing that he could get an explanation from her on the bike. "Sounds bon ta me, mon ami." He agreed.

Piotr just nodded, throwing the keys to Remy before turning to Kitty. "So, Katya is it"? He asked.

Rogue watched with amusement as Kitty blushed, evidently suprised that he knew who she was. "Yeah, that's me. Kitty Pryde at your service." She tried to joke, holding out her hand, which Piotr shook, smiling at her.

"Ok, are you driving, or should I?" He asked her.

"Oh, er, that's ok. I think Kurt would kill me if he knew that someone else was driving his baby." She told him.

Rogue smirked. "Yeah, probably. We need to talk to him about that. He's getting worse than Scott." Rogue commented. Kitty giggling in agreement, before climbing into the drivers seat, Piotr sitting beside her.

Remy climbed onto the bike, passing a helmet to Rogue as he shoved one on his own head. They had mics in them so they didn't need to shout to be heard. Rogue stradled the bike behind Remy, and wrapped her arms around his waist. "So chere, ya wanna tell me wha' dat was all 'bout?" He asked her.

Rogue grinned, even though he couldn't see it. "Well, Kit's got a bit of a crush on yah Russian friend there. Figured it was a good chance to let her do something about it." She told him, as her started up the bike, and taking off, the pair following behind Kitty and Piotr.

"Ah, so de KitKat got a t'ing for strong silent types eh?" He asked her.

Chuckling, Rogue nodded. "Yeah, ah guess she does, although that does make meh wonder what she ever saw in Lance." She mused.

"Rocky?" Remy questioned. "Mon dieu, dat ain't de right boy fer her." He stated, almost disgusted at the idea.

Rogue raised a single eyebrow at him. "Oh, and how would yah know that Mr LeBeau"? SHe asked.

Remy chuckled. "Aw, c'mon chere, ya seriously tellin' moi dat ya t'ink Rocky is good enough fer ya friend?" He asked her.

"No, ah always thought she deserved better, but it's up to her to decide. Besides, if yah tell her she can't see him, then she's just going to see him behind yah back. Ah'd rather approve so that ah can keep an eye on her." She explained.

"So ya supported her so ya could spy on her?" He asked, a little suprised at her.

"No. Ah wasn't spying, just keeping an eye on her. She's mah best friend. Ah don't like seeing her get hurt is all." SHe told him. "Of course, that didn't stop meh from decking Lance when he hurt her like that." She added, chuckling.

Remy chuckled with her, shaking his head, but decided it would be best not to comment on how similar their actions were, the only difference being that he was watching out for her and she was watching out for Kitty. Plus, Remy hadn't had the opportunity to beat anyone up fo her yet. 'Although that might change during this little trip' he mused to himself.

Meanwhile, in the jeep, both Kitty and Piotr were a little quiet, thoughts obviously weighing on their minds. "Er, Piotr?" Kitty ventured, hoping he didn't mind her calling him that. "Can I like, ask you something?" She asked him.

Piotr was a little suprised, but pleased, that Kitty knew his name, and that she was talking to him, although the expression on her face worried him a little. "Of course, what is it?" He asked her.

"Well, has Remy said anything to you about this trip?" She asked him.

Piotr considered her question, wondering what made her ask. "Well, yes, but what made you ask?" He questioned her, not wanting to reveal what his friend had told him unless she knew herself what was going on.

"Well, something Rogue told me earlier. I'm a little worried about this trip. I know there's something she's not telling me." She explained. "She told me that if she isn't bakc by Wednesday, or if she hasn't called to say she's on her way back, then I need to tel the Professor she's in trouble and that she needs him to find her and send help." She confided in him.

"Remy told me the same thing." He told her. "He told me that someone from Rogue's past had reappeared and he was going with her to make sure she stayed safe. But he's placed a coupl of trackers on his coat and phone, so that if he's not returned by Wednesday, I can find him easily. He even told me to bring John, so I know it's serious." He confessed.

"Doesn't Remy like Pyro then?" Kitty asked.

Hey everyone, I know I promised an update sooner than this, so I apologise for my tardiness, but what can I say, university workloads are huge, and Mandarin is way harder to learn than I thought it would be.

But here is the next installment. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and favourited my story. Hope you like this chapter and let me know what you think ;-D

Discalimer: I (sadly) do not own the x-men.

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"It's not that he doesn't like him, but John is a little attatched to fire, and has a habit of causing troubl and panic wherever we go." He explained, smirking a little. "We had to hide him from Sabertooth all last week becuase he set fire to the cat's room. Needless to say, he was less than amused." He told her.

Kitty chuckled. "You know, if they haven't returned by Wednesday, and I haven't heard anything from Rogue. Can I call you to see if you've heard anything from Remy? Just in case Rogue's lost her phone or something?" She asked, feeling a liitle shy at the fact that she was asically asking for the guys phone number.

Piotr smiled. "Of course Katya. Here, I'll rite it down for you." He told her, pulling out a pen and a scrap of paper from the glove compartment.

"Hey did yah see that? Ah swear Piotr's just given Kit his phone number." Rogue grinned from her place on the bike.

Remy chuckled. "Really? Well, de KitKat sure works fast, I ain't seen 'im give 'is number ta anyone since we first met. Except moi an Johnny o' course." He added.

Rogue just smiled, happy for her friend, not realising that it was her and Remy that was the cause for the exchange of numbers.


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks to everyone who reviewed my last chapter, and to everyone who, read, reviewed, favourited and alerted this ficcy, I'm sorry that I've been such a slacker in updating. I'm working on the next chapter now, and hope to have it up soon.

Hope you like it, it's kind of a bland chapter I'm afriad, but it's all part of the build up.

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Before long, the group reached the airport, Remy parking the bike next to the jeep so that Piotr could drive it back to the base. As soon as they parked up, Rogue climbed off the back of the bike and handed Remy the helmet, as she walked over to the jeep to grab the bags out of the back. She slung hers over her shoulder and when Remy came to stand by her side, she passed his bag to him, so that she could hug Kitty who was stood there with tears in her eyes. "Aw Kit, yah're not gonna cry on meh too are yah?" SHe asked, suddenly feeling like crying herself. After all she was leaving the people she turned to as family behind so that she could throw herself back into the clutches of her father, who had who knows what planned for her down there. Needless to say, she was a little scared, and it didn't help that her mind kept telling her to take in everytihng about the people she loved because she may never see them again.

"No, I'm not crying, I just, like, have something in my eye." She argued.

Rogue smiled at her, before wrapping her arms aroun the girl in a hug, wishing that she didn't have to go. That she could be sure that if she didn't heed her fathers warning , that they would all be safe. That nothing would happen to them. But she couldn't take that risk, and that was why she was going. She pulled back and laughed when she found that they both had tears running down their faces. "Gawd, look at us. Yah'd think we were never going ta see each other agian." Rogue joked, but something inside her kept saying 'that might be true' but she ignored it. Not wanting to worry her friend more than she already had with the promise she had forced her to make.

"Yeah, I know. I mean, you'll be back in a couple of days right? It's not like anything's going to happen to you." She questioned, watchng Rogue's reaction carefully.

Knowing that she was being watched just made Rogue smile, making sure that there wasn't any kind of saddness or remorse or ever fear in that smile before she replied. "Of course not. Like ah said earlier, ah'll be back before yah know it. We both wiil." She added turning to Piotr and smiling at him, which the man returned.

"Ok then. Well, you'd like, better go before you miss your flight." Kitty told them, somewhat miserably.

Rogue just chuckled and hugged her friend again, before squeezing her and turning to Remy to see if he was ready. Remy gave a small nod and a look to Piotr and then grinned as he turned to Rogue. "Ya ready chere?" He asked.

Nodding, Rogue replied. "Yeah, let's go Cajun." She told him, giving Kitty another wave and a look, that told her not to forget what she ha told the girl earlier. Kitty just nodded as she waved back, neither girl noticing the looks that were exchanged between Remy and Piotr.

The pair walked into the airport an found the right check in desk where they given their boarding passes and told where they would be sitting. Glad that they were early enough that they could still get seats next to each other. As soon as the woman handed the passports, passes and tickets over, Rogue grabbed them, and smirked at Remy before sneeking a peek at his passport photo, grinning when she saw it.

As soon as he saw what she was doing, Remy made a grab for his passport, but, for the first time ever, he was a little slow, Rogue easily moving it out of his reach. "Ah, ah, ah." She told him. "It's not polite to grab, Remy Etienne LeBeau." She told him, grinning. "Nice picture." She added, before handing him back his passport, keeping a hold of the boarding passes and tickets.

"Aw chere, now dat;s not nice. If ya gonna look at Remy's passport, de least ya can do is let 'im see yers." He told her, pouting.

Rolling her eyes, Rogue sighed, knowing that he wouldn't give up bugging her if she didn't let him. "Fine. Here yah go Swamp Rat. Knock yahself out." She told him, handing him he passport.

Grinning, Remy opened the passport and looked at the picture, noticing that in it she had no make up on, her hair was pulled back from her face slightly, although her white bangs, didn't seem to agree with the hairstyle, so, rebelling, had refused to do anyything but hang around her face, even though it was obvious that she had tried to tuck them behind her ears. He glanced over at the other information, taking in her date of birth, 'June 20th, will 'ave ta remember dat so dat I can get 'er a present.' He thought to himself, looking at the name and was slightly suprised that she had put her real name on it. "'Ow come ya used ya real name chere? Thought ya would 'ave stuck wit' Rogue Darkholme or somet'ing?" He asked her.

"The Prof never asked to see mah passport. In fact, ah've never used it since ah've been at the institute. Whenever we do go abroad, it's usually with the blackbird, so there isn't really a need for passports." She explained, blushing a liitle.

"I see. Well, chere, lets get a couple of stamps and stickers put on dat dere passport. It making Remy look like a frequent flyer." He joked.

Rogue laughed. "Ah think yah've got a way to go before yah can claim that status sugah. Yah've only got 4 stamps in yah own passport." She told him, as the pair made their way towards the security boothes, both of them placing their bags and jackets on the conveyor belt, along with their shoes as they went through the arch thing, niether of them making it beep, which calmed Rogue a little as she had had visions of Remy setting it off and then having to watch as the security officers pulled out something stupid that he had stashed on him and it would all be horribly embarassing.

Remy noticed the look of relief cross her face when they were through the security check point, and raised his eyebrow at her as they made their way to the food court, Rogue being hungry as she had left before dinner. "Ya lookin' rather relieved there chere, is dere somet'in' ya not tellin me?" He asked her, smirking.

Rogue blushed a little. "No, ah'm fine Cajun, ah just had visions of ya gettin' stopped by security and then makin' some kind of scene." She told him, eyeing him carefully to see if her gave anything away.

"Oh, so you been t'inkin' 'bout me chere?" He asked, smiking at her.

"No, ah just don't want to get stopped and searched because of yah." She told him, before walking off to the counter she'd seen serving Pizza, the smell of it, making her stomach rumble. Remy followed close behind, not wanting to lose her.

"So ma chere fancies Pizza huh?" He asked her, looked at the food in front of him.

"That's right Cajun, yah got a problem with that?" She asked him.

"Non chere, jus' wonderin' dat's all." He told her.


End file.
